Ratings are based
on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating.

Heidi Craig

Golem
Modified 2.5/5
The hit points aren't bad at 120 for a Pokemon that isn't an EX.
The weakness to water could really hinder this Pokemon with
Kingdra being played so much. The retreat cost is brutal
switching cards would be a good thing in this deck.

Rock Vengeance could deal some decent damage once you get some
damage on Golem. This attack isn't too bad for 3 energy.
Rock Slide at first glance 5 energy seems high but with boost
around this can really speed things up. Doing 60 damage to the
active and 20 damage to 2 different benched Pokemon really is
pretty good. That's 100 damage per turn, though it's not all to
the active it's still a lot of damage for one turn.

Unlimited 1/5
There are much better Pokemon to use in this format. I'd could
try to convince it was good but I don't think that is possible.

Draft 4/5
If you were able to draft the whole line and actually get it all
into play it would be great in this format. If I drafted the
line I would use it.

Heidi

Otaku

Well,
today we look at Golem from Dragons. Since I found five
versions of Golem (including ex) and its lower stages, we’ll
just look at the Dragons group… which I conveniently already
had typed up for the Golem ex review we did not too long
ago. ;)

Flip a
coin. If heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 10 more
damage.

Attributes:
Being a Golem is a mixed blessing-until recently, the Golems
were a pretty lackluster line. Now, we are starting to see some
worth running. Overall, its probably
for the best-there is one good Golem right now: the Expedition
Version has a decent Poke-Body and attack (but got the low end
for HP-just 100). It’s a Fighting Pokémon-not a lot of
Resistance going around, but a good amount of Weakness. It’s a
Stage 2, which, as always means that it will need to be stronger
than normal to compensate the difficulty or running it (as
compared to a Basic or Stage 1). For lower stages, I suggest
you experiment, as nothing really jumps out at me. I tend to
favor the versions with the highest HP. Rare Candy is a
thought, though as you’ll see later, could be problematic for
multiple reasons. The Weakness to Water is probably better than
most other choices, save perhaps Fighting
(since that’s not heavily played): Rock-Types are weak to
Fighting and Ground. Mind you, Water is fairly accurate
too-Rock/Ground are Water Weak, and Ground is Ice Weak too.
Water isn’t played much either: like Fighting, though, it’s
usually TecHed into many decks. Sadly, no Resistance: as usual,
this just irks me: there are many options, and all are better
than nothing. Retreat is four: worst there is for a non-Pokémon
ex. Don’t pay it unless it’s an emergency-make sure you have
some Switches or Warp Points or something in your deck.

Abilities:
So, here’s one reason why we don’t want to Rare Candy a lot-you
need at least 2 Energy cards (something to provide Fighting and
a Boost) to use the first attack. The first attack is fairly
decent, though I sometimes wonder if Rage-like attacks should be
a bit cheaper. Still, for (FCC), 20+ 10 per damage counter will
do some serious damage after Golem takes a hit or two. The
second attack is tricky to evaluate. Five Energies kinda throws
the normal pricing off. I think its okay-you pay for 60, and
get 20 to two benched Pokémon as well.

Uses/Combinations:
Once again, we have another big hitter with some nice tricks,
so I’d say it’s a Gojira candidate. For those who don’t
regularly read, that means playing Sandstorm Xatu with it for
mass healing. One might also add one or two Golem ex with Retro
Energies-Double Edge once then retro and re-evolve to Golem to
have a strong Rock Vengeance attack ready. Also, it could be
comboed similarly with its
Expedition cousin.

Ratings

Unlimited:
1.5/5-No. Too slow, too energy dependent, and water is easy to
TecH even if it wasn’t so hard to play the thing.

Modified:
3/5-Try it with Expedition Golem and Golem ex and –you guessed
it-Sandstorm Xatu. It’s got the HP and a bench hitting attack…

Limited:
3.75/5- It’s got the HP and a bench hitting attack. ;)

2-on-2:
3.5/5-Notice Rock Vengeance references both actives. ;)

TMP:
3/5-Don’t think you can use both you and your partners Pokémon
for Rock Vengeance the way it’s worded, though either/or may
work. On the bright side, if you opponent tries to gang up on
just this, they’d better KO it before you get a chance to attack
again. ;)

Summary

Could be a
real contender, could be another never-was. If you have it, I
encourage you to try it: we really need some more Fighting decks
in Modified (don’t use it in Unlimited XD ).

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